[gopher] Re: PyGS - a Python Gopher Server...

[David Allen <mda@xxxxxxxxxx>]

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On Mon, Jul 09, 2001 at 12:57:11PM -0500, Adam Gurno wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 09, 2001 at 12:25:29PM -0400, David Allen wrote:
> >=20
> > I'm interested in finding out if there's anything wrong with the
> > client though - if you could let me know if FORG munges any specific
> > directories or displays, please let me know and give me the selector.
> > Also let me know how it's munged, since gopher.floodgap.com looks
> > fine through FORG 0.4.1
> > (http://opop.nols.com/proggie/forg-0.4.1.tar.gz)
>=20
>       It could very well be just my server.  I've attached a screen shot of=20
> FORG 0.4.1 on the site (gopher://abg.sytes.net)

Well, it's sort of your server.  Truth be told I think it's both of
our faults...  :)

>       The thing that I'm seeing is the 'foo' after every i line.
>=20
>       This is what is being sent out...
>       iText Goes here\tfoo\t\t70\r\n

No, that's not what you're sending out, (or at least not what's
causing the error condition) and that's what had me so
confused.  Attached is a file that I created by telnetting to port 70
of your server.  This was so I could see exactly what your server was
outputting.

On the "foo" lines, here's the problem - you seem to have put a spacer
in the directory listing so the clients will just display an empty
line.  Nothing wrong with that, but here's what the server is spitting
out:=20

i<tab>foo<tab>70

That's just like:
iSomeText<tab>foo<tab>70
(which is handled correctly) the only difference being that SomeText
is "" in this case.  THAT is the problem.  The "name" field is NULL in
this situation.

I don't know if this violates the gopher protocol, the protocol says
how things should be, but it doesn't explicitly disallow this
situation.  I'm going to fix the FORG so it works with this data, but
if netscape and/or lynx isn't working with it, my suggestion would be
to change the server so it doesn't send NULL name fields.  The easiest
way to do that would be to have it send one space " " instead of
nothing.  That way it doesn't get displayed as anything, and you're
not messing clients up.

Like I said, I'll fix this in the FORG and the change should be in CVS
in a few hours hopefully, but I'd recommend you tweak the server so
this doesn't happen if you're having problems with clients other than
just mine.

I'm sending this to the list too because I think it might be of wider
interest - Cameron, does bucktooth ever do this?  John, do you know if
UMN gopherd ever does this?  (I'll check if I get the time...)

What do you guys think?  Is this a violation of gopher?
--=20
David Allen
http://opop.nols.com/
----------------------------------------
Majority, n.: That quality that distinguishes a crime from a law


-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --

Trying 24.216.41.200...
Connected to 24-216-41-200.hsacorp.net.
Escape character is '^]'.

^R

iWelcome to abg.sytes.net's gopher server!      foo             70
i       foo             70
iThis server is running PyGS v. 0.3 - an asynchronous gopher server     foo     
        70
iwritten in Python.  More information is here and more is available from        
foo             70
ihttp://gurno.com/adam/pygs/.   foo             70
i       foo             70
iHappy gophering! - Adam        foo             70
i       foo             70
0A Welcome Message - sort of.   /Welcome.txt    abg.sytes.net   70
1Funny Stuff    /humor  abg.sytes.net   70
0About this server      /ats.txt        abg.sytes.net   70
0My Public Key  /public.txt     abg.sytes.net   70
1Test Directory - no need to go here.   /test   abg.sytes.net   70
1King of all gopher sites       /       gopher.floodgap.com     70
1Main Gopher Site at the UMN    /       gopher.tc.umn.edu       70

.
Connection closed by foreign host.
[x@mothra forg]$ exit



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